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Windows 7 does not boot from first restart during clean install

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I have had the exact same result with Win7 final RC as well as Win7 Ultimate install attempts. The hardware is brand new Asus 785 Chipset mother board (Kit from AMD/Microsoft Seminar with Win 7 Ultimate NFR) with AMD Phenom II x4. I've got Win XP 64bit running just fine on this system using another HD as a test of the entire system. Only a single hard drive is connected during the testing and install.

DVD boots up fine and begins to intall Win 7 64bit. Then when it attempts very first re-boot during the installation it hangs. I've swapped out hard drives -with no change in outcome. There is no question that the motherboard, RAM, DVD drive etc. are all working fine. This must be some weird compatibility problem. I have attempted the installation 3 times with Win 7RC and with the working final release of Win 7 Ultimate 4 times -with the same hangup on the first re-boot. R

The hard drives are partitioned and formatted with Acronis Disk Director -is this the source of the problem? I've been so disgusted by wasting so much time I have not done anything more for over 2 weeks now. In my 15 plus years of building and repairing PC's I have not seen anything like this (except possibly during the earliest days of DOS to Windows transition).

These are my next steps:

I can try to have Win7 format the partition.

In case this is a 64bit problem, I can try to install Win7 32 bit -but I am building 64 bit machines w 8Gb RAM so even if this works, it's not something that interests me.

I have not tried the install on another computer, but that would be next (but I have to get Win 7 working with new hardware not old stuff -that's part of my business).

Firstly, if you have it set in the bios to boot from the cd/dvdrom it can cause installation to loop after the first reboot, as it restarts installation and loops - to fix you remove the install dvd during reboot, or go into the bios and reset it to boot from the hard drive first - so you need to remove the dvd while its rebooting quickly - you have 15 secs to do so before it restarts if you don't hit a key, or go into the bios, and reset it to boot from the hard drive.

You have to be watching the last part of the install and be ready to pull the DVD out. I also hit the Del key so I could reset the BIOS Boot setting. For all other Win OS I have set CD/DVD to be the first boot device followed by the HD, but of course the Geniuses at Microsoft had to screw this up and create headaches for some of us. Logic and prior experience will not have helped you figure this one out. Keep in mind that it is helpful to assume that MS has done something really dumb. Then you will be on the right track.

I consider this a first class BUG. Will Microsoft pay me for the 8 hrs I wasted trying to solve this ridiculous stupidity? I doubt it.

So, it seems to me that when you install Win7 you must not have DVD as your first BOOT device, and simply hit F12 (on most hardware) in order to get an instant window asking for Boot Device Choice.

Firstly, if you have it set in the bios to boot from the cd/dvdrom it can cause installation to loop after the first reboot, as it restarts installation and loops - to fix you remove the install dvd during reboot, or go into the bios and reset it to boot from the hard drive first - so you need to remove the dvd while its rebooting quickly - you have 15 secs to do so before it restarts if you don't hit a key, or go into the bios, and reset it to boot from the hard drive.

You have to be watching the last part of the install and be ready to pull the DVD out. I also hit the Del key so I could reset the BIOS Boot setting. For all other Win OS I have set CD/DVD to be the first boot device followed by the HD, but of course the Geniuses at Microsoft had to screw this up and create headaches for some of us. Logic and prior experience will not have helped you figure this one out. Keep in mind that it is helpful to assume that MS has done something really dumb. Then you will be on the right track.

I consider this a first class BUG. Will Microsoft pay me for the 8 hrs I wasted trying to solve this ridiculous stupidity? I doubt it.

So, it seems to me that when you install Win7 you must not have DVD as your first BOOT device, and simply hit F12 (on most hardware) in order to get an instant window asking for Boot Device Choice.

I was initially able to install Windows 7 x64 Professional on my machine alongside XP Pro, but I the dual-boot option was not there. At first I could change the HDD boot order to boot into XP or 7, then I could only boot into XP regardless of what boot order I selected.

Had I known more about EasyBCD at the time, I believe I might've got the dual-boot working - I didn't realize I needed EasyBCD 2.0 beta (not EasyBCD 1.7.2).

Instead, I made the mistake of trying a fresh install and for some reason it would not complete the install - after displaying the "Starting Windows" screen for several seconds, the machine shuts down and reboots, only to reboot again at the "Starting Windows" screen.

I initially believed I had a dual-boot problem and tried numerous attempts at Startup Repair - with no success whatsoever. Sometimes Startup Repair could find my windows 7 install - other times it could not. Sometimes it appeared to fix something, but on reboot, same problem. Most times Startup Repair could not detect any problems, although several times I received a message saying "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically" and then "Windows is checking for a solution to the problem..." A couple of times, Startup Repair found Windows 7 with a different drive letter. I've also tried many more fresh installs since - always the same result.

At this point, I am sure the dual-boot has little to do with the problem - it is simply an installation problem - Windows 7 does not boot from first restart during clean install.

I've read several possible fixes for this, but nothing I've tried so far has worked - installing an OS should not be this difficult! I can install XP in less than an hour - if Windows 7 is truly as good as some say, surely it should at least be able to install without having to disconnect drives, video cards, remove RAM, etc. Does anyone know of a fix that will work?

What gets me is why did I have no problem with the very first install? At one point during the install process, it looks like its searching for, downloading, and installing updates from microsoft - does anyone know if thats what its doing? Is it possible that MS has issued an update that is causing the problem? I've heard of others having this reboot problem after installing certain updates.

What I'm really thinking is Windows 7 is nothing more than a massaged over Vista OS...

I'm having a little bit of a similar problem, I didn't want to make a whole new post about it, so I figured I'd post here.

I'm installing Windows 7 64-bit on a completely clean install; I ran into some issues upgrading, and because of the major issues, I decided to take the scenic route and used GParted to completely reformat all of my partitions. Now that that's all done (which was somewhat painful knowing all of the music and files I lost in the process) I'm using the Windows 7 disc that was sent to me from Acer to install. The problem is, after booting from the disc and running through the "Windows is loading files" bar, it hangs at the "Starting Windows" screen - it's been there for about 20 minutes now. This was the same issue I had before! I know it's not a bad disc, it installed completely once before I started running into issues, but it doesn't seem to want to do anything now.

I am having a simlar problem. Installing Win 7 Ultimate x64 to a brand new, blank, 500GB hard disk (only one hard drive) in HP dv6675us laptop (4GB ram, was running Vista x64 before, running latest BIOS). Win7 Installation DVD boots
and appears to install correctly, but after first re-boot, it does not boot and hangs on a blank screen (just prior to "Starting Windows..." screen). It appears to hang just prior to booting from a device, whether CD/DVD, USB key (nothing is connected
to USB ports) or the Hard Disk. I tried suggested steps (changing boot sequence to hard drive only) and it sometimes boots, other times does not, and just hangs at a blank screen (a blinking cursor in top left corner may eventually appear)... CAPS
LOCK etc seems to work. I find I have to POWER OFF my laptop, then POWER ON, then select F9 to choose boot device (HARD DISK) and then Windows 7 will boot. Otherwise, pressing C-A-D and selecting F9 to disk (even with BIOS set to boot
only hard disk), system will NOT boot Win 7 (no disk activity during boot to disk selected). Seems like a hard power down is required... even though C-A-D appears to power off laptop and re-start it... strange.

I checked the disk partitions and sure enough, Win 7 created a 100MB SYSTEM RESERVED NTFS partition, healthy (system, active, primary partition) as well as 465.66 NTFS C: healthy partition (boot, pagefile, crash dump, primary partition) where Win 7
installed. Once system boots, Win 7 is great and works.

I tried re-installing Win 7 (using existing boot partitions, new install to C: ... as well as delete/format all partitions and re-build system reserved and OS partitions)... and install hangs on first re-boot.... same symptoms of not booting once OS updated
and configured with apps.

I ran the Win 7 recovery options and checked the memory... diagnostics ok. Note this laptop, with another hard disk (320GB) worked fine for Vista x64 for years.... I swapped out hard drive to preserve original disk/data in case needed in future.

I tried "bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr" as suggested on thread to restore Master Boot Record... still no luck. Even tried /FORCE option.

I also tried "Startup Repair" three (3) times as suggested. All three times it could not detect a problem. Error codes all reported as 0x0. System Disk=\Device\Harddisk0, Windows directory=D:\Windows, AutoChkRun=0, Number
of root causes=1

Currently only workaround is to power on laptop from power off condition, select F9 to select boot from hard disk, and hope it works/boots. In cases where it does not, power off and on, then try again. Definitely a PITA!

Any ideas as to how to resolve this? Someone suggested EasyBCD 2.0 beta... how would this help? ...Grant

I have had a couple of glitches when dual booting 7 and XP. First, they say that you can't install XP after 7, you should install in the order of release of the editions for your multiboot. Idid not know that and thought that I lost my Windows 7
Pro because no dual boot menu was offered on boot and it would only go into XP. I used a 7 installation disk and tried the startup or boot tool and that let me into 7. Once in there I downloaded EasyBCD 2.0 and created an entry for XP. It gave me
the multi-boot menu, but when I instructed it to look on the partition that 7 called "D:" it would not start. Re-booted into 7, changed the drive to C: (which must contain the boot sector) and it works now but with one little glitch. When I switch between
OS's it loops once back to the dual boot menu, I choose the OS a second time and it goes to safe boot-start windows normally etc. I hit start windows normally and it boots right up! 7 offers to run a startup repair but until I find out that it won't make it
worse i just start normally. If I keep using either system without switching, both boot up the first time I select it like my other multiboot machines do. I'm sure it's something that can be corrected, and yes, you can install an older version of
Windows after 7 but 7 is tricky in some ways, like calling drives different letters than the other OS does. Make sure you do the math when deleting partitions, you'll know what's on it by it's size, not what drive letter it's called.

Anyway, I saw something about Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate allowing you one key for each system for free to let you have Virtual XP. Will be much faster by not having to reboot!

OK I had the exact same thing but solved it with this. Remove all unneeded card from your pc. in the first window where it shows you your new harddrive hit the little button at the bottom (advanced Setup). Select the drive or partition that you want to
install onto and hit format. (Even if your drive was formatted to NTFS with xp or acronis, Let Windows 7 format the drive for itself.) Mine didn't work until I reformatted the drive with 7. Then as the guys above said. Remove the disk when it tells you its
going to reboot in 10 seconds. I was getting the blinking cursor error everytime the installation did its first reboot. Hope this helps. And thanks for the earlier posts.

I had the same problem in XP professional service pack 2, 32 bit. I tried this after the installation completed and it worked. I don't remember having this same problem with my previous IDE hard disk (slowly dying) and the same hardware
configuration, but then again, my CMOS settings sometimes change on the second IDE controller so the DVD drive might have not been detected on that reboot. I guess it just shows that this problem has been around for quite a while.

I have done countless clean Windows installs from 3.1 to 7 and, until this one, have NEVER encountered this problem. I have bugged people in forums I use all the time and at least 8 forums I've never visited before-to all of you I owe my apologies and my
sincerest thanks for not sending me email (or real) bombs for my constant annoyance!!!

In utter desperation I did one final search and found this post by DSTong. I was beginning to think my disk was bad since every conceivable test of the destination drive said it was good. Who would have thought such a low-tech solution would be the winner!
I mean in the dictionary, next to the definition of "D'oh!," is this solution!

OK, I have the same problem. The First boot after setup and receive the blink cursor with blank black screen. I reseted MBR to zero and format drivers with acronis disk director. I set the first boot is hard drive after first boot and of course remove the
cd/dvd as these guys told. It won't work. So I must to use a hiren boot cd and choose something I don't remember: "Boot from Hard Drive - Windows
Vista/7 (BOOTMGR)"
I guess. Then restart again. It works perfectly. So the problem is you must fix the MBR. Boot from win 7 cd again and choose repair --> Command Prompt and enter these statement:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

bootrec.exe/fixboot (This maybe not essential)

Then restart

P/S: At last....why do we have this error. I'm not sure but maybe because you format 2 PRIMARY PARTITION or more, so Windows cannot regconize the boot partition though you have already
set ACTIVE partition C:\. Next time, try to format only one PRIMARY, the rest, format them as LOGICAL.

Helped me, I read some other posts saying that it was a possible power supply fault. I refused to believe that the PSU was the issue because my first thought was what your post suggested as well. Instead of being able to switch the boot device order, I had
to pull out my USB as soon as my computer turned off. Worked on the first try.

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